The Sun Times from Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada • 1

Ontario NDP second behind Liberals: poll pressed or somewhat impressed with NDP Leader Bob Rae 28 per cent are very impressed or somewhat impressed with Tory Leader Larry Gross-man 42 per cent said they were "not impressed at with Grossman while 26 per cent said that about Rae and only 16 per cent about Peterson An analyst for Goldfarb Consultants said Friday any vote above 43 per cent means majority government And 48 per cent would mean a majority" he said A party needs to win 66 of the 130 seats at stake for a bare majority Earlier polls including one last June gave the Liberals 49 per cent of the vote the Tories 28 per cent and the NDP 23 per cent A Gallup poll in May gave the Liberals 52 per cent of the vote with the Tories and NDP tied at 24 per cent In the breakdowns for the three candidates the poll shows: 25 per cent are very impressed with Peterson 38 per cent are somewhat impressed 22 per cent were a little impressed and 16 per cent impressed at all 13 per cent were very impressed with Rae 35 per cent somewhat impressed 26 per cent a little impressed and 26 per cent not impressed at all Eight per cent said they were very impressed with Grossman 20 per cent somewhat impressed 30 per cent a little impressed and 42 per cent not impressed at all TORONTO (CP) Ontario Liberals hold a commanding lead over second-place New Democrats with the Tories trailing in third spot as the parties head toward a Sept 10 election a poll published today by a Toronto newspaper says The poll conducted by Gold-farb Consultants Ltd shows 48 per cent of decided voters plan to vote for Liberals compared with 31 per cent for the NDP and 21 per cent for the Conservatives Twenty-five per cent of those polled said they were undecided The Liberal standing is consistent with other polls over the last year But the findings show a dramatic drop in support for the Tories If the voting intentions hold until election day the NDP would become the official Opposition The last time the Tories placed third was in 1919 The three-day survey involved telephone interviews with 598 people across the province and was started Tuesday four days after Premier David Peterson called the election on July 31 A sample of this size is considered accurate to within 41 percentage points 19 times out of 20 Regarding public preference for the leaders of the three parties the poll shows: 61 per cent of the voters are either very impressed or somewhat impressed with Peterson 48 per cent are very im CP photo Vicki Keith smiles Friday as she touches a pier to end her record-setting swim of Lake Ontario Woman finishes record swim Leaders to debate on TV on Aug 17 By PORTIA PRIEGERT The Canadian Press TORONTO At first glimpse Vicki Keith was a small dot barely visible through the choppy waves far from the shore she had left 56 hours before Then as she labored to the end of her round-trip swim of Lake Ontario her sturdy arms formed arcs above the sparkling blue water as graceful as a soaring bird And then she arrived As hundreds of fans cheered Keith touched the concrete pier shortly before 4 pm and became the first person to finish a double crossing of Lake Ontario She climbed slowly on unsteady legs into her boat and rested for a few minutes before pulling over to the pier "I'm tired I'm sore I'm going out for a party before I do anything she said after the gruelling 102-kilometre marathon Her body was caked in lanolin grease white against her ruddy tan and her hands and feet were white and wrinkled from the water Her legs shook and her hands trembled but the exuberant 26-year-old swimming instructor from Kingston Ont still had the energy to joke and spray her fans with some victory champagne not that exhausted" said Keith who estimates she lost 40 pounds during her battle with waves that reached up to three metres "If I had to 1 could probably swim it Her trip took Marilyn Bell's historic one-way lake crossing in 1954 considered equivalent to swimming the English Channel a step further The one-way trip has been conquered by 19 other swimmers since Bell's feat Keith said the hardest part of the trip was turning around after she rested briefly in knee-deep water and ate a nine-hour-old cheeseburger at the halfway point at Port Dalhousie Ont on the south shore of Lake Ontario near St Catharines She was also fed soup protein supplements and chocolate drinks while she was in the water said her father Brian who travelled on the boat with the support crew that also included her mother Carol and younger brother Donald But Keith said she knew all along she would make the double crossing this time after she was forced to abandon her first attempt a year ago because of storms "It was worth every single second of it" she said "And there was a lot of pain and agony" What kept her going? "My Weird she said rolling her eyes "I spent time singing to myself to the fishes I felt sorry for the Keith said she hallucinated for the last 24 hours of her trip imagining the bottom of the lake was covered with little animals like rabbits and bears just really happy that over and that I accomplished it" she said "I think that the most important thing in people's lives is setting goals and accomplishing them If you don't have that what else can you have?" Despite being hours behind schedule because of strong currents she did the butterfly the hardest stroke near the end of the swim "just to prove I had something left" Meanwhile Lynne Cox of California spent two hours and 12 minutes plying the icy Bering Strait on Friday completing an unprecedented swim from American to Soviet territory Escorted by a Soviet vessel and two Eskimo walrus-skin boats carrying researchers and reporters Cox arrived at the Soviet island of Big Diomede after leaving the US island of Little Diomede and swimming about eight kilometres in water that was slightly colder than 4 degrees Celsius By JIM COYLE The Canadian Press WINDSOR Ont Ontario's three political leaders will participate in a 90-minute televised debate Aug 17 on three television outlets Robin Sears principal secretary to NDP Leader Bob Rae told reporters Friday that representatives of the parties and CBLT CFTO (respectively the Toronto CBC and CTV affiliates) and Global Television Network have agreed on a format for the program which will begin at 7:30 pm Each leader will make two-minute opening and closing statements and face off one-on-one with each of his two opponents in 25-minute showdowns while the third man on the stage remains silent Studio sound will be broadcast in whatever language Premier David Peterson Conservative Leader Larry Grossman and NDP Leader Bob Rae choose to speak a disadvantage for Grossman who as the only unilingual contender will have to arrange translation if the other two choose to tackle him in French Lots are to be drawn at the legislature next Wednesday to determine the order of opening and closing statements and the one-on-one round-robin I CP photo Vicki Keith celebrates with champagne back in first place Sears claimed a small victory for the NDP in gaining the 90-minute program as opposed to the proposed 60-minute session But Peterson and his Liberals were thought to be in favor of the early date of the debate in order that any mistakes can be recouped in the weeks leading up to the Sept 10 election Peterson when asked in Toronto whether he was worried about fumbling on the air he said "I fumble regularly not worried about fumbling During the one-on-one sessions the political combatants will be started off with questions from a panel of three television journalists but may continue uninterrupted unless the moderator decides their exchange has grown boring or excessively acrimonious Sears was optimistic that viewing would be high by voters as much by that programming as by interest in the campaign The game show Wheel of Fortune precedes the debate on Global and the popular movie Local Hero follows it on CFTO No separate debate in French has yet been arranged and there has been no arrangement for simultaneous translation nor signing or close captions for the hearing impaired drug patents that is now bei the Senate may be amended tl and returned to the Commons approval The bill gives pharmaceut companies which develop name-brand drugs better pal protection at the expense of neric-btand manufacturers opposition says the bill will re in higher drug prices think one of the real teas the government is asking for recall of the House is to try slip through the drug bill Canadians' attention is diverts the refugee issue" Gray said continue to oppose bill that results in higher prices for Jays are By The Canadian Press Dave Stieb who was on the mound when the Blue jays fell out of first place in the American League East in June pitched them back into top spot again Friday night as Toronto whipped the Cleveland Indians 15-1 Stieb 11-5 has won five straight decisions since his most recent loss June 28 He gave up just one run Friday night on seven hits in eight innings George Bell hit a three-run homer his 34th and Fred McGriff hit a solo home run as the team collected 14 hits Opposition MPs one refugee bill The Jays also were helped by the fact that the Detroit Tigers blanked the New York Yankees 8-0 Dave Bergman homered and drove in four runs for Detroit and Jeff Robinson 8-5 pitched a five-hitter and retired the final 24 New York batters "It's always important that teams respect a pitcher" Robinson said have my best stuff when I pitched in New York last Sunday "They didn't smoke me but they drove me out of the game I didn't want that to happen again on the coast of Nova Scotia and asked for refugee status Mulroney accused them of abusing Canada's refugee system Deputy Prime Minister Don Mazankowski said Friday the legislation is needed to deal with "serious abuses and deficiencies of the system governing refugee The legislation will include: sharply increased penalties for those who smuggle people into Canada to claim refugee status heavier fines for transportation companies that bring people without proper documents into Canada powers allowing the govern this time not in front of all these Bergman had an RBI single during a three-run second inning against Rick Rhoden 14-7 and hit a three-run homer in the fourth The Jays are now a half game in front of New York and 1V4 ahead of Detroit "There's a long way to go but it says we're competitive and what we want to be" Toronto manager Jimy Williams said after Friday night's game More coverage of the games on page 12 oppose ment to detain new arrivals until their identities have been established- powers enabling the government to deport those who pose a threat to security Both Liberal House Leader Herb Gray and New Democrat MP Lome Nystrom said their parties support tougher penalties for so-called people smugglers but want to allow legitimate refugees to be able to enter Canada The government also has asked opposition parties to speed passage of Bill C-55 legislation aimed at atreamlining the refugee processing system and reducing the number of bogus refugee claims By PAUL MOONEY The Canadian Press OTTAWA Moments after Speaker John Fraser agreed on Friday to recall the Commons for debate on new refugee legislation opposition MPs vowed to fight any provisions that slam the door on genuine refugees and immigrants The opposition also expressed skepticism about the government's motives for the recall The Commons is to meet Tuesday at 11 am nearly five weeks earlier than scheduled when it adjourned Prime Minister Brian Mulroney aaid last month new legislation is needed after 174 Asians landed But Gray and Nystrom repeated their opposition to the bill Gray said the Liberals might agree to speed things along if the government considers opposition amendments that would eliminate concerns that genuine refugees might be denied access to Canada under the bill Church groups and refugee-aid organizations have mounted a fierce campaign against the bill Gray repeated his suspicions that the government plans to end the session in two to four weeks so that the Commons isn't sitting if a draft agreement on free trade is reached on Oct 3 Gray also noted that a bill on.